A 'Round The Clock Hairdresser

     Page Forty-Five.
     When you're self-employed you hesitate to say no to any work. As a hairdresser, I've done hair as early as 7AM and as late as 2.30AM just because that's when my clients needed me.
     The 7AM client called me, sort of last minute, and explained that he had an early meeting the next day. (This must've been about 1993.) Literally, the only time we both had was 7AM, just prior to his meeting. So, I did it. I wasn't happy about waking up at that hour and doing hair, but when that's the only time that works, you do it.
     The 2.30AM haircut was a little bit more entertaining. Let's say this was in oh, say, 1990. I was out late-night on a Saturday evening, when I happened to run into my closest buddy, Blackie, his girlfriend, Madge, and another very good friend of ours, Drew. The four of us hung out for a while and then Blackie announces that he needs me to cut his hair, "NOW!" I really argued with him. "It's 1.30 in the morning. By the time we get back to my place it'll be way after 2. Do you really want me doing your haircut at 2.30AM after I've been up all day?
     "I don't care. I trust you."
     "Jerk!"
     "Thanks, Jeremy." 
     So we all went back to my place, the third floor of the nice, quiet, sound asleep Shapiro home. We all tried to be as quiet as mice while stomping up many flights of wooden steps. When we got to my bedroom, which was directly over the Shapiro's master suite, I did instruct everyone to be quiet and they mostly were. Madge, the poor thing, promptly went to sleep on my bed. However, Drew got a bit obnoxious and began making crude jokes, which, of course, got Blackie riled up. But I finished and everybody left without too much incident. The next day Lena told me that we did wake her up, but only for a moment.
     When you're self-employed, you never have enough work. I'm convinced of that. I'm pretty lucky in that I've always been busy enough, regardless of the decade, that somehow the bills do gets paid though. Occasionally, over the years I've pulled the rent check out of a hat, for sure. But the fact that the hat appears at all is the miracle. Between hair, food prep, child-care, elder-care and house-sitting/dog-sitting/cat-sitting I'm diverse enough that self-employment is always a viable option for me. I'm very grateful for that.
     One of these days I'll write about the time that I informed Blackie that he got Madge pregnant.